PNNL

PNNL materials scientist Kevin Simmons is part of a collaboration that was recognized recently at the DOE Hydrogen and Fuel Cells Program annual merit review and peer evaluation.  The merit review was held April 29 – May 1 in Arlington, Virginia.

Simmons was one of four researchers to receive the Safety, Codes and Standards Award. Nalini Menon of Sandia National Laboratories, Barton Smith of Oak Ridge National Laboratory, and Mike Veenstra of Ford Motor Company are Simmons' collaborators who also received the award.

The award recognizes the team’s work in the area of polymer materials compatibility for hydrogen service. According to the award, “This ongoing partnership between national laboratories and industry has met a critical need in the R&D community, developing new standards and test methodologies that will help to provide improved polymer material durability and reliability for the hydrogen industry.”

Simmons is the co-lead of DOE’s recently launched Hydrogen Materials—or H-MAT—Consortium, which was built from this collaboration. H-MAT is a multi-laboratory collaboration with Sandia, Oak Ridge, Savannah River, and Argonne national laboratories. It aims to improve reliability of materials, reduce costs of materials, and inform codes and standards that guide development and use of hydrogen technologies.

Simmons holds 17 U.S. patents in materials research. In 2019, he was named a distinguished inventor of Battelle.

In 2013, Simmons received a TechConnect National Innovation Award for an injection-molding method that can reduce costs and increase us of titanium and other durable, lightweight, and corrosion-resistant metals.